


Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1, Episode 18, Providence

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e18 Providence, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 18:10:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17513420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode, later seasons, and potentially other MCU works. Complete.





	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1, Episode 18, Providence

Open to Raina making paper flowers in her cell.

She hears chaos outside, and her smile makes it clear she believes she’s about to be free. The smile fades when Agent Ward enters, but it’s back when he offers her a wrapped present containing a flower dress. “A gift from the Clairvoyant.”

Okay, but this is so amusing to me. First, her measurements are almost certainly on file somewhere, and so, Garrett could obtain those with relative ease. Second, it’s possible he sent a minion, likely female, out to buy the dress, but also, it’s possible he actually swung by a store, possibly with Grant in tow, charmed a saleslady with some story as he gave Raina’s measurements, and selected this dress. Or there could a tailor/seamstress who he special ordered this from.

Personally, I love the idea of Garrett dragging Grant on a shopping trip to pick up the dress and him having it carefully wrapped so as to best avoid wrinkles.

I wonder, if Paxton was still alive, would he have ever come back to AoS? I’d hope he would someday.

Over to the Hub, Coulson’s watching news footage when nu!Faith comes over to tell him they have an extremely limited number of SHIELD bases still secure. Nu!Faith also makes it clear she’s fully drinking the SHIELD Kool-Aid now, and he makes an ironic comment about how, even with Hydra, “At least, our team is still intact.”

Yeah, about that- in Havana, Cuba, Grant takes Raina into a barbershop. He talks to the barber in what I presume is Spanish, but I could be wrong. It’s established the two men know and are on friendly terms with one another.

Raina is disbelieving this is where they’re supposed to meet the Clairvoyant.

In response, Garrett continues to be awesome. Taking off the towel he had over his face, he declares, “There’s no need to call me that anymore.” Taking off his chair cloth, he adds, “Name’s John. John Garrett.” He adjusts his turtleneck. “Guess you were expecting more the fortune teller type.”

Showing true sincerity, Raina says, “It’s an honour to finally meet you.”

Her awe doesn’t last long, however, when it’s quickly established he’s a simply someone who held a high rank in a powerful organisation and had access to loads of classified information rather than being precognitive.

There’s a look between Garrett and Grant, and there’s no real indication of this, but I like to imagine Grant made some wry comments on the trip over and Raina was frosty/condescending/dismissive, because, sure, he was smart enough to jump ship to join the Clairvoyant, but he didn’t truly understand how much of an honour it was and how much respect such a gifted person truly deserved.

Thus, this non-verbal exchange could be, ‘You didn’t tell her, huh?’, with Grant being, ‘I tried to prepare her, but she wasn’t up for hearing it.’

Garrett reminds her their shared goal is to change the world. Then, wiping the chair and assuring her he’d never dream of letting her hair be cut by the barber, he coaxes her into sitting down. Once she does, the chair takes her underground.

I love the touch of him offering him his hand when she comes over to sit down.

In episode 16, I noted Garrett isn’t a gentleman, and this holds true. However, unlike many male villains, he doesn’t hold any sexism or misogyny, and the fact he does often exhibit gentlemanly behaviours when interacting with female characters is one of the things I enjoy about his character.

Elsewhere, Trip and Fitzsimmons are trying to fix the plane, Simmons is trying to talk through the fall of SHIELD with Fitz, and Fitz doesn’t appreciate the fact the other two are proven right about him needing to do something in order to fix the plane that he originally nixed doing.

Over to Coulson, nu!Faith, May, they video-talk to Glenn Talbot, and when I read he was played by Adrian Pasdar, I didn’t believe it. Pasdar does great in the role; I just didn’t recognise him due to him being markedly different here from everything else I’ve seen him in.

Talbot makes it clear he isn’t SHIELD’s biggest fan. In fact, he’s sending in people to take over, and he clearly lies about them just “asking a few questions”.

Also, I acknowledge my dislike of Coulson magnifies this, but I really, really didn’t like it when Coulson asks what he should tell his **men** to expect.

There are female SHIELD operatives on the base. He talked to one earlier. Nu!Faith and May, members of his own team, are literally standing right beside him.

Use the term ‘agents’. ‘Operatives’. ‘The people under my command.’ ‘My team’. ‘What should I tell my men **and** women?’ ‘Everyone here.’

Ugh.

“Everything checks out, you and your boys can be on your merry,” Talbot finishes.

So, what is going to happen with Simmons, nu!Faith, May, and the other women who have been shown, then?

Look, Talbot’s incarnation is a new character to the show right now. If he’s meant to be sexist or this was just a fumble, fine, but one of the few things I actually respect about Coulson is the fact he isn’t sexist and/or misogynistic. He’ll prioritise children and likely women who legitimately aren’t able to defend themselves over men, but if a woman is smarter or a better physical fighter, he’ll step aside and say, ‘Hey, I’m not up to this, or you can handle it better, and so, you handle it,’ and then, he’ll be proud and thankful when she does.

After the call ends, Coulson has a walk-and-talk with the two non-men members of his team he does legitimately respect and care for, and it’s decided the team is leaving before Talbot’s likely all men soldiers arrive.

Next, May and Coulson talk about how a lot of agents are staying behind to surrender to Talbot.

Tell me, what is the ratio of gender for these agents?

On the plane, Trip asks Coulson to let him come with them, and I don’t know why Coulson is refusing. With Grant gone, he currently only has one man in the form of Fitz. Maybe, he’ll feel better if he doesn’t have **men** to have to tell things to.

And now, I’m dropping it.

It is interesting how in episode 16, Coulson did begin to suspect Grant of being a double or, at least, an informant, and now, he’s suspicious of Trip due to Trip’s previous closeness to Garrett, but there’s no indication he has any residual suspicion of Grant.

However, much to Fitz’s silent sourness, Simmons vouches for Trip, and this is enough to get Coulson to agree.

There’s a scene of Coulson talking to the others individually, and he’s increasingly frustrated by the bad news they give, but admittedly, I do like the way he handles it by merely being sarcastically upbeat rather than going after any of them.

When nu!Faith says they have internet, he responds, “Yay! And boy, have I lowered my expectations.” Heh.

He orders to take the nuclear option of erasing everything she can find on all of their identities, and she’s hesitant to do so. Then, she asks about Grant due to the fact he and Hand should have dropped Garrett back off by now, and answering no, he gives her his phone to call Grant. He adds hearing about the tiny, windowless permanent home Garrett has been/will be dropped in might actually cheer him up.

Merely amused at this comment, nu!Faith is subtly not happy when he tells her to collect badges.

There’s a brief scene of Coulson talking to May in the cockpit, and nu!Faith is shown beginning to erase everyone’s identities.

Over in Cuba, Grant gets the call from Coulson’s phone, and Garrett gives him permission to answer it.

It’s obvious I love the Grant/Garrett relationship, but I have never and will never claim it’s healthy. In many ways, I do mourn for Grant, because, if Garrett hadn’t shown up, he might have been able to become a good man. Garrett took an abused boy with clear psychological issues, if not outright mental illness, and emotionally abused and manipulated him into becoming a murderer and a traitor. He essentially screwed up Grant ever being able to develop truly loving, healthy, permanent bonds with anyone else.

In real life, I would hate Garrett, I’d be horrified by such a relationship, and I’d have extremely ambivalent feelings towards Grant. However, with this being fiction, I’m going to focus on how much I enjoy Garrett’s character and the screwed-up nature of his relationship with Grant.

On another note, what Paxton has Garrett doing in the background is relatively unimpressive on paper but, for me, wonderful to watch.

Nu!Faith informs Grant that Grant Ward no longer exits, and calm but bemused, he asks, “You want to explain that, _Skye_?”

She does, and he claims Hand picked up some Navy jets in the vicinity necessitating they take the long way to the Fridge. She doesn’t know what to make about his nonchalance over his identity being erased, but he points out this isn’t the first time his identity has been compromised.

They have a nice moment, and this isn’t Bennet’s fault, but there’s a clunker in the dialogue when she asks who he’ll be when she sees him next due to him having a clean slate and being able to be whoever he wants to be.

Bad, writers.

Grant suggests a football person I know nothing about and have no interest in looking up, and when he hangs up, Garrett declares Grant hates the football team I’m not going to look up.

Garrett declares, “Yeah, that straight version of you is something else.”

Now, I know what he means, but at the same time, I’d be curious to hear the thoughts behind whoever wrote that line and the people who approved it. Was it intended to be so hoyaytastic? Was it intended to throw a bone at the small chunk of fandom who has Grant somewhere on the QUILTBAG spectrum? Or did no one realise how exactly this line could be interpreted?

The conversation takes a turn for the less-fun when it’s clear Grant is conflicted over some of the genuine loyalty he’s developed for the team and the fact he’s legitimately not okay with the whole nu!Faith being shot thing.

Garrett is a mixture of cruelly striking and carelessly dismissive during this argument, and when he’s tired of it, he insists Grant cheer up, because, he himself is back to being happy again.

They go over to Raina, and he gives her all the money, labs, and support teams she could ever want and need to try to figure out how to replicate the serum Coulson and nu!Faith were given. It’s revealed he did swipe some vials when he went to rescue Coulson in episode 14.

I still maintain it would have made more sense for there to have been an either seemingly straightforward or somewhat ambiguous scene during that episode that resulted in Garrett leaving the about to explode building and Grant going to get Coulson out. It wouldn’t really change anything here to reveal Grant swiped as many as he could, and it would make more sense given their personalities and dynamic for him to brave the dangerous building to get Coulson and the vials rather than Garrett.

Grant also gives her files on the team.

One thing I like is Garrett again refers to Raina as “Flowers”, and she corrects him. He apologises, and then, he uses her name the next time it’s appropriate with no irritation or mockery.

They start to leave, she asks where they’re going, and they explain they’re going to raid the Fridge.

Awesome.

Back to Coulson’s team, nu!Faith gives Coulson all the badges, and this is a well-done scene. I’m personally indifferent due to my opinions about SHIELD and many of the SHIELD characters, but for people who don’t share these opinions, I can see why this scene would be moving.

Nu!Faith talks about how SHIELD was the first time she was ever truly a part of something, and it’s revealed Coulson was recruited by Fury straight out of high school. He starts to lock the badges in his safe, but they realise his badge is doing non-badge things.

Coulson decides they’re coordinates as well as proof Fury is alive, and yes, he’s right. At the same time, I’m glad there are other characters who express reasonable, rational uncertainty to this.

The next scene has this. Coulson, though, has absolute faith. He declares there are parachutes if anyone wants to leave rather than risk hand delivering themselves straight to Hydra or anyone one else who could have found a way to hijack his badge.

What I do like about this is the fact there’s not out-of-nowhere tension manufactured for drama’s sake. The situation they’re in has been building up for several episodes, everyone is in-character, and there is clear communication. Sometimes, clear communication doesn’t neatly solve everything, and this is showing that done well.

What I wish was done differently is Coulson’s speech about protecting people should have been done last episode instead of here when he’s not really arguing for protecting people but for trying to regroup and rebuild.

Over in Cuba, Garrett isn’t happy about SHIELD retaking a place, but he’s amiable and reasonable enough when talking to a minion.

The minion proceeds to show over-exuberance about serving Hydra, and the best way I can explain Garrett’s immediate reaction is, if you’ve seen a character go, ‘Oh, Jesus Christ,’ in a vaguely annoyed, maybe kind of weary tone with possibly a dash of amused fondness mixed in, that’s it minus him actually uttering those words.

After this, he’s verbally snarky before walking away, and I love watching Garrett so much. This scene’s hilarious to me.

He goes over to check his men’s weapons like a good overlord leader should, and Grant comes over to talk to Raina.

I remember, a few episodes before this one, someone online posted a theory about how Grant might a double agent, and honestly, the idea they might have secretly been involved with the show in some capacity is legit plausible to me. Everything they laid out, it’s almost word-or-word what Grant explains here about how he so successfully integrated himself as a trustworthy person in Team Coulson.

Raina probes him about any true feelings he might have towards Team Coulson, and admitting he did get attached, he nevertheless makes it clear he feels he owes Garrett everything. According to him, Garrett pulled him out of a hell and saved him from himself when he (Grant) was a teenager.

There’s a shot of them looking at Garrett being all personable with the minions, and ever since Garrett’s first episode, Dalton has done great at showing how genuinely _fond_ Grant is of him.

Over with Team Coulson, May wants to take Coulson’s weapon, and she makes the levelheaded point that Hydra could have compromised the TAHITI project.

His faith, however, is still absolute, and the fact she tried to shoot a member of their team simply because said member found out she was talking privately with their mutual boss has been forgotten, but the fact she has been talking privately with their mutual boss about him, oh, he isn’t getting over that betrayal any time soon.

The scene ends with her leaving without taking his weapon.

I actually would have argued she should have forcibly taken it and relieved him of command on the grounds his actions are potentially putting her, three non-combat trained individuals, and Trip in grave danger, but then, I’d have to believe she cares about such things.

In the lab, Fitzsimmons and Trip are talking, and Fitz’s jealousy and irritation over Trip’s presence makes him shut down even considering their points maybe Coulson isn’t making a great call at the moment.

Over at the Fridge, a cuffed Garrett and Grant are dropped off on the roof, and Garrett has a line of exposition about the roof being the only way in that would have been better a little earlier in the episode. They go to the door, and the men inside aren’t going to open without Hand being physically present.

After almost a season of watching Grant being the strait-laced, rules-exist-for-a-reason who only ever went against regulations when the stakes were big, in some ways watching him being exasperated and needling about _just open the doors_ is even more shocking than him shooting the fake Clairvoyant.

The agents refuse, and then, a Hydra plane starts shooting. Grant gets Garrett covered, shoots back, and insists the door be opened before he and his prisoner are both killed.

One of the men, he dies doing something heroically misguided. He isn’t supposed to open the door, but he either can’t let a fellow agent, an unarmed, restrained person, or both be killed due to regulations.

“Screw it.”

Once in the elevator, he starts to contact security, something one of them should have done at the very beginning, and this is both horrible and darkly comedic: Garrett announces the fact they led Hydra there, an exasperated Grant action villain style produces two guns, shoots the men, and then, requests a little bit of warning next time. “I mean, they had automatic weapons.”

Having dispensed of the cuffs, Garrett digs gas masks and a gas dispenser out of the backpack Grant is wearing. “I couldn’t resist. It was too good a line.” He tosses the dispenser to Grant, and Grant is just so fond.

One thing both Dalton and Paxton did wonderfully is the body language Grant and Garrett have around one another. I don’t believe anyone in the show intended any sort of shiptease or implications of more between the two characters, but an intimacy between the two was obviously intended, and both actors absolutely sold this.

Now, Twister, on the other hand, I’m not sure there wasn’t a subconscious love story of Jonas and Bill that occasionally peeked through.

It’s revealed the slingshot program is a fake, and as much as I love the interactions here, this is something Grant likely would have already known. The show had both Raina and several extras with speaking roles. More Grant and Garrett explaining things to them or just naturally talking to each other about what they already know would have worked better.

On the Fridge roof, Grant making a comment about how he wishes there were a way into the Fridge besides the roof would have told the audience this was the only way. Or Garrett could have received one of Grant’s exasperated fond looks when they landed, and Garrett could have been, hey, you knew this is the only way in before we left.

One of my big problems with Teen Wolf is some of the dialogue on it is flat-out awful. This show rarely has truly bad dialogue, but my biggest complaint about this episode is some of the exposition could have been handled much more smoothly.

This said, Garrett says something I absolutely love, “You really think Fury would give away all these goodies? We’re talking about the same guy that messed around with Tesseract technology and sparked an alien invasion.”

Now, this isn’t completely fair to Fury. The drama of Asgard’s royal family played a much bigger role in the invasion happening, but at the same time, he does have something of a point.

They find the plasma particle beam from episode 2.

Back on the plane, Coulson gives what would be an inspiring speech under different circumstances. It ends with them all setting out to walk into a potential death trap lead by him.

Over to the Fridge, Garrett blows a hole in a wall, and prisoners pour out.

“You’re welcome, gentlemen! Don’t forget to follow your dreams.” Then, he helps some women out. “Ladies.”

He finds Grant, and I’m wondering if this is the first time he’s addressed Grant as “Grant”. He could have in the past, but if so, I don’t remember it.

Taking the plasma particle beam, Grant tells him about the gravitonium Coulson told him about underneath. Garrett is sceptical, and Grant inquires, “Care to make it interesting?”

“Loser buys dinner?”

“Perfect. I’m so sick of the crap we ate on that plane.”

You know, I’m going to go to bat for Team Coulson here. I doubt Grant ever said anything. If he had, I have no problem believing everyone aside from potentially May would have been, ‘Okay, what would you like? We’ll do research on where we can find this or that, we’ll bug SHIELD until they give us more options just to shut us up, hey, we’re going to experiment in the cooking area, if you want to help, cool, if not, you can just be our test subject, and when we produce something you like, we’ll have all the data to replicate it recorded.’

And even in May’s case, I don’t think she’d be antagonistic or obstructive on the subject.

The unseen gravitonium is revealed to them.

Out in the cold wilderness, Fitzsimmons has a bittersweet moment where they establish they’re still together but, like it or not, everything else has permanently changed.

May and nu!Faith talk about Coulson and May’s spying.

They arrive, Coulson shows further instability, and then, machines start shooting at them. Trip has a line about shooting first and asking questions later not being SHIELD’s style, and agree to disagree.

Coulson does something I’d call suicidally stupid, but it works, and a secret base opens up.

To say something good: Gregg truly showcases his skills here.

Back in Cuba, Garrett and Grant are talking about the steak dinner Garrett bought Grant, and their good mood is tampered by Raina informing them nu!Faith made the hard-drive only accessible by her.

“In case it fell into wrong hands, I guess,” is her sardonically pointed conclusion.

Looking at Grant, Garrett says, “You know what that means, Romeo.”

Over in the wilderness, the stupid idea of everyone going into the secret base together plays out, but luckily, it all works out. One of the Koenig brothers greets them. He’s a Coulson fanboy, and when Coulson brings up his badge, the K brother acknowledges that might be hard to place, but oh, oh, Coulson gets his very own lanyard!

Everyone else, though, they will only be getting a lanyard if they prove worthy.

Heh. Patton Oswalt does great in this episode.

Also, in defence of the badge being destroyed, the way Coulson was waving it around, it would be easy for it to be mistaken as a weapon.

The K brother confirms Fury is totally dead, and when he announces the Fridge falling, nu!Faith immediately goes to call Grant.

I really wish I could have seen how Grant spun his way out of this one.

KB and Coulson go to talk in private, and there’s a brief mention of KB’s brother. Then, he spills Fury is alive, and also, this level 6 man who is shorter than Coulson and likely doesn’t have much combatant training is 100% threatening Coulson to keep his mouth shut about Fury’s survival to Team Coulson.

I like the humour the K brothers bring.

Back in Cuba, Garrett is changing shirts when Grant finishes the call. One thing I’ve noticed is Garrett isn’t incredibly careful about making completely sure the call is fully hung up before he starts talking.

Grant promises he’ll get the information, because, he knows how important it is to Garrett, and briefly revealing the metal plating on his torso, Garrett notes, “We all have our weaknesses.”

He says, if Grant can both get the information and keep his cover intact, do so, but he only has 24 hours. If he can’t get the information by then, he’s to kill everyone but nu!Faith and bring her to Garrett.

In a scene I don’t like watching but do find interesting, Garrett asks, “You got your story straight?”

“Yeah.” Grant walks over. “We just need to make it believable.”

Garrett punches a non-resisting Grant over-and-over, and Grant keeps repeating, “Grant Ward, agent of SHIELD,” until the scene transitions to an even more bruised and bloodied Grant saying this to the secret base’s opening.

“Welcome, Agent Ward. We’ve been expecting you.”

And sure enough, inside, nu!Faith is waiting. Helping him get his gear off, she suggests, after Simmons takes a look at him, “Maybe we can get that drink.”

“Deal.”

In the stinger, Quinn appears in the Cuban base, and he’s not happy with Garrett physically assaulting him and throwing him in a small cell where his only meal option was meatloaf that he wasn’t even allowed to eat with a fork.

As someone who hates meatloaf, I genuinely feel for this evil person.

Good job, show?

Quinn’s hatred of Garrett quickly vanishes, however, when the gravitonium is revealed.

Fin.


End file.
